Fighting Climate Change Will Be More Profitable Than Costly: IPCC Chairman Says

It's pretty much conventional wisdom in the green community that the cost of preventing climate change now will be less than the cost of doing nothing and trying to adapt later, even if it costs 1-2% of global GDP. Well, IPCC chairman Dr Rajendra Pachauri has take one more step, The Guardian quoting Pachauri saying "the cost [of tackling climate change now] could undoubtedly be negative overall." As in the economic benefits are greater than the costs incurred:He went on to say that if the costs are negative that "inertia and vested interests would be washed away. As the Americans say, it would be like dollar bills lying on the sidewalk."

I'm not so sure it's quite as easy as that -- and Pachauri gave no stats on exactly how profitable he thought fighting climate change would be -- but, nevertheless the benefits of acting now are great, both economically and ecologically.